Читать книгу Man Trouble - Natalie Fox, Natalie Fox - Страница 7

JADE had her feelings of betrayal under control a few days later. How could she feel betrayed when she hadn’t seen him for four years? But the truth was that she had never completely given up hope because he had always been in her heart. All the time she’d been reading about his latest amorous adventures with women in the gossip columns she’d allowed that hope to stay firmly implanted in her. Perverse as it might seem, she had thought that so long as he was womanising he wasn’t finally lost to her. Now that he was about to be married, however, he definitely was. It was a thought she was trying to come to terms with and she was not having a whole lot of success. When you were dealt a devastating blow like that it wasn’t easy to carry on as if the world was still turning.

‘You’re not cooking for me, are you?’ Nicholas asked, coming up behind her in the kitchen part of the open-plan living area. ‘I’m leaving for Paris almost immediately. The taxi will be here in a minute.’

‘I know, I heard you ringing for it, and I’m not cooking, just heating up some canned soup. How long will you be away?’

‘A couple of days. Did Mel Biaggio get in touch with you?’

Jade stirred the soup and gave a small sigh. ‘Yes, while you were in Belgium. No go, I’m afraid. After looking at my financial statements he said I couldn’t afford him.’ She didn’t tell him the content of the rest of their talk because Nicholas, being the sweetie he was, would show such concern that she’d be in tears before she knew it.

‘Arrogant swine.’

‘He has a point,’ Jade said defensively. ‘I’d have to mortgage this apartment to afford his fees.’

‘Don’t even think about it. I’ll advance you the money.’

Jade turned to him, grinned and tweaked his chin. ‘Your wedding money? Trisha would have a fit. She only tolerates you living here because I don’t charge you rent and you can save quicker. Thanks for the offer, though; you’re an angel. But it isn’t the answer. I’m going to have to swallow my pride and—’

‘Bargain with him?’ Nicholas suggested with a thin smile.

‘No way,’ Jade retorted, and then sighed heavily. ‘I’m going to have to tell Daddy. Hopefully he’ll inject some money into the company and I’ll struggle on.’

Nicholas took the wooden spoon from her, placed it on the counter, and put his hands on her shoulders. He was serious, worried about her. ‘You said you couldn’t bear the thought of facing him, and you know that isn’t the answer anyway, Jade. In another year you’d be back in the same position and beholden to your father again. The company needs restructuring and you need financial advice too, and Mel Biaggio is the only one who can help.’

‘Can’t you help?’ Jade pleaded softly, her limpid brown eyes wide and appealing. ‘You could look over the books and—’

‘I would have offered help before now if I thought I could be of service, but it isn’t my field, Jade,’ Nicholas insisted. ‘Biaggio has the expertise. I wish I knew him personally; I’d have a word with him—’

The door buzzer went and Nicholas shrugged and let her go. ‘That’s the cab. I have to dash. Chin up, sweetheart. We’ll talk about it when I get back.’

‘Have a good trip,’ she murmured as he went out of the door.

‘I’m lonely,’ she muttered to the soup. ‘Resorting to talking to a pan of soup because there’s no one special in my life. But once there was…’

Mel groaned as he gathered her lovingly into his arms, nuzzling her warm hair as they lay sprawled in the corn-field. A perfect day, a perfect picnic; everything was perfect.

‘I hate parties, ‘ he moaned. ‘It’ll mean I’ll have to share you. Can’t we just swish away on a magic carpet to somewhere romantic for your birthday? Paris would be perfect. The city of lovers.’

Jade giggled and twined his hair around her fingers. ‘Daddy would never forgive you for whisking his baby away on her twenty-first. Besides,’ she added, her voice low, seductive and teasing, ‘you want to meet him, don’t you? Haven’t you something special you want to discuss with him?’

‘Like his daughter’s hand in marriage?’

He looked down at her, his eyes so full of love and adoration that her heart squeezed. He lowered his head and gently pulled at her lower lip with his teeth, mur-muring, ‘Do people still do that these days?’

‘Not before they’ve made their intention quite clear to the lady in question,’ she laughed.

He grinned down at her. ‘Was that ever in dispute, my pocket-sized princess? I adored you from the moment I first set eyes on you queuing for bagels in Harrods food hall.’

‘Doughnuts,’ she corrected him and they both started to laugh, remembering how corny their first meeting had been. Jade had dropped her purse and her money had scattered; everyone had helped to gather it up and then, in the confusion, she had tried to pay with pesetas, not pounds, because she’d just come back from Spain. People had grown impatient and Mel had stepped in, paying for her and then gently taking her by the elbow and steering her out of the food hall and into his life.

‘What ever happened to those doughnuts?’ he murmured now as his mouth closed over hers in a kiss so deep and moving it was a perfect demonstration of how they felt about each other. Theirs was a wonderful, wonderful love, and they had a perfect future to look forward to.

She had every intention of introducing Nicholas to Mel at her twenty-first birthday party. They had been so wrapped up in themselves these past weeks that she hadn’t considered her friends. Her father had organised a lavish party at their Kent home, Bankton House, as usual going over the top to compensate for Jade not having a mother. Her mother had left when she was a small child, not able to live with John Ritchie’s overbearing temperament a minute longer. Her father organised everyone’s life. He did it the night of her party with disastrous results.

When Mel arrived she greeted him happily, but before she had a chance to whirl him around to meet her father and Nicholas another crowd of guests arrived.

He brushed a kiss across her hair. ‘See what I mean? I’m having to share you. Come back soon, princess,’ he teased, and then, with an understanding smile, he moved across the hall to the drawing-room buffet and bar. And that was where he was standing when John Ritchie got to his feet to make a speech Jade had known nothing about in advance. Her father opened his mouth and sent Jade’s world crashing.

She caught the look of horror on Mel’s face, but before she could reach him Nicholas clutched at her arm. He saw it as some sort of joke.

‘Us, engaged to be married? Your father’s drunk, surely?’ He laughed.

Jade supposed Mel had witnessed Nicholas grasping her arm and laughing and assumed they were indeed a happy couple. Then, to make it worse, people surrounded her and Nicholas, offering congratulations and good wishes. Nicholas was laughing and spluttering, thinking it all a hoot, and by the time Jade could tear herself away Mel had disappeared. She found him getting into his Jaguar on the floodlit gravel drive, tearing his bow tie from the collar of his evening shirt.

‘Mel!’

He turned, face gaunt and pale, eyes as hard as steel.

‘Mel, you don’t understand—’

‘I understand you hadn’t the courage to tell me to my face. You callous—’

‘Please don’t, Mel. You must listen. Nicholas and I-’

‘Are engaged. Yes, I just heard. What sort of games are you playing, Jade?’ He gave her no chance to answer before blazing on, ‘God, what a fool you’ve made of me and what a character misjudgement I’ve made. You’re nothing but a rich, spoilt child with no thought for people’s feelings. You…’

The chicken soup frothed over the side of the pan and Jade grasped it and hurled it into the sink. Tears streamed down her face just as they had the night she’d pleaded with Mel to listen to reason. She’d blurted that she and Nicholas were just good friends but even as she’d said it she’d known it sounded hopelessly fragile. His Italian ancestry made no allowances for boy-girl relationships with no sexual undertones, but then Mel was a man of the world—surely he could see that Nicholas wasn’t a threat to their relationship?

But of course she’d got nowhere with her reasoning that fateful night. Mel had been too furious, too hurt, too betrayed to listen. Until then he’d never heard of Nicholas Fields and Jade knew she’d made a grave mistake in not mentioning him before. Her only excuse, not even voiced to Mel, was that their affair had been so swift and intense that no one else had encroached on their lives—not her father, not Nicholas, not anyone.

The phone rang, jarring her nerves, and Jade brushed the tears from her face with the backs of her hands. She knew it would be Trisha, wanting to know if Nicholas had got off all right, and it was. Trisha’s caring for Nicholas only served to accentuate Jade’s loneliness. She envied what they had—a love, a life together, a future full of promise. She forced herself to laugh and joke with Trisha on the phone but her heart was heavy with the emptiness of her life.

‘Mel Biaggio has been ringing all morning,’ Diane, Jade’s secretary, told her when she came in late after an unsuccessful meeting with the company bank manager. He could only offer so much, and it was not nearly enough.

Jade gazed at Diane in disbelief, her heart leaping wildly. ‘Mel Biaggio?’ she breathed, slipping out of her overcoat. ‘Did he say what he wanted?’

Diane grinned ruefully. ‘I did ask but he wouldn’t say. I told him you’d be in at lunchtime and he said he’d see you then.’

Jade paled at the thought. He was coming here, just when she had got herself together after his last visit. Had he changed his mind about helping out? After all, he had taken the file with him. But perhaps he’d decided he hadn’t punished her enough and was coming in for another stab at her!

She was ready for him when he arrived. Afraid but outwardly in control of her fear.

He crossed her office, tall, dark and maddeningly handsome, hardly looking at her as he approached. He tossed the file down on her desk. For a horrible second it occurred to Jade that the return of it was the only reason he was here.

‘Th-thank you,’ she murmured, eyeing him warily, wondering why he hadn’t sent it by courier.

His face was expressionless as he spoke. ‘I’ve given this a lot of thought and have a proposition to put to you.’

Jade widened her eyes. ‘You’ve had a change of heart?’ she uttered, and prayed her voice didn’t sound too hopeful.

‘Certainly not where you are personally concerned,’ he clipped. ‘I’d like to look over the place.’

Jade stared at him, smarting from his cold insult and puzzled by his request.

‘Why?’ she asked directly.

‘I want to see what I’m letting myself in for,’ he told her coldly.

Her heart didn’t even miss a beat at the thought that he was considering taking the job on. His attitude dismayed her. He was so cold and clinical and once he hadn’t been…But they weren’t lovers now and never would be again; this was business, and the only reason he was here, she reminded herself.

‘So…so you think you can help?’ He nodded. ‘But why? Last week you said I couldn’t afford you. Nothing’s changed, Mel.’

‘My thinking has,’ he told her as he slid out of his cashmere coat and threw it down on a chair. ‘Now, before I make a final decision are you going to show me around, or is my journey wasted?’

Jade steeled herself, and it was surprisingly easy now. This man before her wasn’t the man she had loved so passionately. This Mel was different. He gave off not one scrap of warmth or sincerity. He was hard and unfeeling…and was only here to do a job, she reminded herself yet again.

‘Before I show you anything, Mel, you must make your intentions clearer,’ she said formally. ‘I’ve a lot to cope with at the moment and if this is your idea of more punishment for what happened between us forget it.’

‘I won’t forget it till the day I die,’ he said coldly, his eyes intense. ‘But that isn’t why I’m here today. I pride myself on my professionalism and I don’t think I gave you a fair hearing before.’

Jade’s brows shot up in surprise. There was more to this than met the eye. ‘Or perhaps you were thinking of your reputation,’ she suggested knowingly.

He frowned. ‘Meaning what?’

‘Meaning word might have got around that you’d turned my company down because we were too small and ineffectual to promote your image as a high-flyer.’ She couldn’t resist that. It was very likely, too.

He smiled very thinly. ‘I doubt you or any of your associates could harm my reputation or my image, Jade. You really are too small.’

She lifted her chin defiantly. ‘Sometimes good things come in small packages—quantity isn’t a guarantee of quality.’

He didn’t say a word. His eyes locked onto hers and she felt mesmerised for a few seconds, then embarrassed when she got the message they were sending her. Small packages, pocket-sized princesses. Oh, she didn’t want him here, looking at her like that, slamming their past at her with knowing looks.

She stretched taller, stiffened her shoulders, picked up a pen from the desk and thrummed it in her palm. ‘I think you are wasting time, Mel—yours and mine. This isn’t going to work out. There are other troubleshooters and-’

‘They won’t give you the time of day, Jade.’

‘So what are you doing back here?’ she burst out, rage welling inside her. Why couldn’t he have stayed away? Oh, how she wished she had never involved him. It was awful, awful. ‘You’ve no intention of giving your services. This is a personal vendetta and—’

‘You were the one who called me in,’ he challenged.

‘Someone recommended you,’ she argued. ‘Because you’re the best.’ She cooled her tone but spiked it with sarcasm. ‘In my opinion your best stinks. I wish I hadn’t bothered—’

‘So do I,’ he sliced back at her. ‘Because I can see trouble ahead all the way.’

‘And with good reason. You’ve done nothing but put me down since stepping into my office and I don’t have to take that—’

‘Well, you’ll have to get used to it because there’s going to be plenty more where that came from,’ he interrupted darkly.

‘What do you mean?’

He stepped right up to her desk, leaned towards her and spoke levelly, his features, as usual, a mask of cold hostility. ‘If I take this fiasco on I’m going to be breathing down your neck so hard you are going to need stabilisers to stay on your feet. I’m going to be digging so deep I’ll rock your foundations. I’m going to be probing every weakness and treading on every slack nerve I find. Can you take that, I wonder?’

She glared at him in defiance. ‘What exactly is that supposed to mean? Are you talking about the ad agency or was that a personal threat to me?’

His mouth thinned to a semblance of a smile. ‘It boils down to the same thing, Jade. You run this company so every weak link leads back to you. I’ll ask you again, can you take it?’

Was there a choice? For a full half-minute she considered it, trying not to let her heart interfere and overrule her sensibility. Could she take Mel breathing down her neck, metaphorically or otherwise? There was no choice, other than to face her father with her failure, and oddly she’d rather face Mel. When this was over Mel would be gone; her father was with her for life.

‘Of course I can take it,’ she fired back at him at last. ‘I wouldn’t have put up with all you’ve dished out to me so far if I didn’t want the best for the company and

my staff.’

‘And what do you want for yourself out of all this, if I decide to stay?’ he asked heavily.

Her heart and soul cried out for what she truly wanted. In spite of everything—his verbal brutality and coldness—she wanted everything they had lost. The long, hot summer and their love, the intensity of passion and sweet pleasure of living each precious moment for each other. But that wasn’t possible. Mel was going to be married and lost to her for ever. Jade took a deep, controlling breath and spoke with sincerity.

‘I’ve failed my father’s trust in me. I want to make things right for the future of the company and for myself I want peace of mind,’ she told him slowly.

He looked at her long and hard before replying smoothly, ‘I wonder if you know what you do want, Jade? I’m also beginning to wonder if your requesting my services has anything remotely to do with the business.’

Jade’s mouth dropped open in astonishment and a fire scorched her spine at his veiled suggestion. Had she given something away—a look, a thought, a misplaced word? He couldn’t think this was personal, surely? No, that was impossible—but then he did have some ego to nurture, she reminded herself. She forced a smile to cover her acute embarrassment.

‘I wouldn’t have you back if you came with a knighthood,’ she told him disparagingly. ‘You think you were the only one hurt that night, Mel. Your bigoted attitude damaged my love for you more than you could ever know.’ Her eyes narrowed with anger. ‘You gave me no space to explain. You wanted to believe it all because it was an easy way out for you. After all, your womanising ways weren’t cultivated after we split up. You were born with them!’

‘We were an excellent match, then, weren’t we?’ he grazed back at her sarcastically.

Her shoulders slumped in an unguarded second of defeat. How could she even begin to think that she could ever have any effect on him? He could hurt her so easily but her poisoned arrows hit an unyielding force, and because of that hostile defence of his she knew this could never work out. It was impossible for them to bury the past and channel their energies into getting her agency back on line.

‘Yes, we were,’ she agreed because it was the only way to be rid of him. Let them both think the worst of each other. ‘And it’s why this won’t work. I thank you for your interest but it’s not on.’

‘My God, you’re fickle,’ he grated cynically. ‘Is this why things have gone wrong here—because of your indecisiveness ? You want my help, then you don’t. Your back is against the wall, Jade. I’m your only saviour and you know it,’ he informed her tightly.

‘Yes, you are,’ she acknowledged, inwardly agreeing that he had a point about indecisiveness. With him drawing the air from the room with his magnetism she couldn’t stick to any firm decision. She couldn’t think clearly any more. She had to, though. She had to force herself to think. Her dark eyes narrowed. ‘But I might decide none of this is worth saving. I might decide bankruptcy has a nice ring to it as opposed to the ring of your insults in my ears!’

He smiled cynically. ‘Bankruptcy is a painful state, sweetheart. Loss of kudos, status and very probably your home, your car and your valuables. I wonder if you could bear that?’

‘You don’t frighten me,’ she returned, though her in-sides coiled tightly at the thought that he could think such things of her. ‘But your arguments are a fair indication of what is important in your life: everything that pertains to materialism and ego,’ she said bitingly. ‘I wanted your help to save my employees more than my valuables, and, yes, my pride where my father is concerned.’ She lifted her small chin. ‘As an Anglo-Italian that might strike a chord with you. I’ve failed and I’m not afraid to admit it to you but my father is something else. He had faith in me and I failed him and…and I can’t bear to face him.’

Oh, no, she could feel the tears flaming at the backs of her eyes. Damn him for exposing her vulnerability with such ease. She tossed the pen down on the desk, turned away from him and made for the door. She held it open, composed now, and defiant too. She’d cope, and without any help from him. She’d remortgage her flat, pawn her wretched valuables if it came to it. What she wouldn’t do was humble herself to him any more!

‘Actually, Mel Biaggio,’ she said stoically,’I owe you an enormous debt, but one I’m not going to offer any payment for. I’ll take it as a freebie. Your insults and put-downs have served me very well. I’ll fight this on my own if it’s the last thing I do, just to prove to you I’m not that rich, spoilt child you keep insisting I am.’

She rapped her nails on the door to indicate that her patience was running thin and she would like him to leave. He made no movement, simply held her gaze with steely eyes as if wondering if she had it in her to struggle along on her own. Jade read the look and was more determined than ever. She’d do it, and on her own, too. Her fingers tightened round the edge of the door, willing him to hurry up and pass through it.

She smiled sweetly. ‘Do let me know your wedding day, Mel, so I can send your intended my very best wishes…and sympathies,’ she added meaningfully. If that didn’t shift him nothing would, she thought.

Success. Slowly he moved towards her, without his coat. She parted her lips to remind him but he was upon her before she could utter a word. He took her arm and propelled her through the door. His grip on her was iron-hard and determined.

‘You’ll be the last to know my wedding date, sweetheart,’ he breathed, keeping his voice low because Diane was in the outer office. ‘And now that I know you are determined to get this agency bouncing its merry little way along the road to success we’ll get started,’

Once they were out in the corridor she breathlessly pulled her arm from his grip. Her cheeks were flaming as she swung to face him. He could talk of indecisiveness! He was the one who was up and down. So he was going to help, was he? If so, she wanted a promise from him to cool it, forget the past and get the job done. This was business and it needed to be separated from emotions. Emotions were draining.

She took a deep breath. ‘There are conditions—’

The laughter that cut her off wasn’t fired by humour. ‘I make the conditions , sweet one, and you just do as you’re told.’

Gritting her teeth, without another word Jade turned away from him and led the way to the stairwell, her stomach churning. Grit and bear it, not even grin and bear it, was going to be her motto from now on. It was all quite unbearable but she had no choice but to put up with it. Halfway up the stairs to the next floor, in control again, her emotions buried deep inside her, she spoke.

‘Administration’s on my floor, the studio above,’ she told him without looking at him.

‘Just the two floors?’

‘This is Soho, not the Sahara,’ she told him flintily. “The rents are astronomical around here.’

‘Perhaps that’s where you’re failing—not thinking big enough,’ Mel parried.

‘Perhaps I know my capabilities and live within them,’ she retorted sharply.

He made no comment but held the swing door open for her. Her arm brushed his as she passed through. Both were adequately clothed, Jade in a cherry-red suit, the jacket cut in sharply to accentuate her tiny waist, and Mel in a Savile Row creation in silver-grey, but she felt the contact as acutely as if they had both been naked. Her eyes flicking up to his, she wondered if he had been as aware of the contact as she had. His leaden eyes gave nothing away and she despised herself for her own recollection of times long gone when any touch, however slight, had sparked thrillingly between them.

She paused in the tiny foyer outside the studio before entering. Nodding towards the glass doors through which you could see the whole layout of the floor, she told him, ‘As you can see, some of the boards are vacant. I’ve got three key staff off with a flu bug.’

‘Let’s hope you don’t go down with it, then. It only takes a kiss for these things to spread like the plague.’

His eyes were gleaming with mockery as he said it and he was standing close enough for an infectious kiss. Jade didn’t know why that thought had even occurred to her when she was still wondering if that was another stab at her supposed loose morals of four years back. Whatever, she warded him off with her own preventative remedy-biting sarcasm.

‘You’re in for a chronic overdose of whatever’s doing the rounds, then,’ she retorted tartly, turning her back on him to push open the inner door of the studio, his low, not madly amused laughter making the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

She showed him around the studio, thinking how jaded it all looked when you were forced to see it through someone else’s eyes. New equipment was needed, new enthusiasm, an injection of fresh spirit. Jade stood on the sidelines, listening to what Mel had to say and not interfering but resenting the enthusiasm and keenness he seemed to be drawing from her all-male artistic staff. She supposed word had got round that things weren’t going terribly well in the company and they saw Mel Biaggio’s interest as something positive. If Mel agreed to help she’d have to inform them that he was a trouble-shooter and there would be inevitable changes.

‘Every one of them needs a kick in the rear,’ he told her sourly as they concluded their tour of inspection, Mel holding the door open for her, Jade avoiding brushing against him again.

She swallowed his contempt and kept her objections to herself. He’d warned her what to expect and she’d have to take it or face the consequences. She was learning but it wasn’t easy.

‘ Who occupies the ground floor of the building?’ Mel asked as they returned to the first floor, where the offices were. Jade led him through the main open-plan office, and it was obvious that most of the female staff were stunned at the sight of Mel, tall, charismatic and God’s gift to the young and nubile.

‘It’s vacant at the moment,’ she told him.

He said nothing till they were back in her office and then he shot the lot at her, taking her breath away with his suggestions.

‘You have to be joking!’ she protested hotly. This was ridiculous. ‘I can’t afford to expand. How can I take on another floor when I can scarcely raise the rent for two? As for taking on more staff, there’s scarcely enough work for the ones I’ve got after that creep creamed off my best clients.’ She was almost trembling with rage. This was his revenge once again. His suggestions were crazy. If she took them up ruin would slap her in the face sooner rather than later. Was that his intention? To take his revenge to the very end—total destruction?

His eyes darkened at her protestations. ‘You can’t get any lower than you already are, Jade. There’s only one way out of this situation and that is up. Now, if you are scared of the challenge quit now, because you’re no good to me if you don’t think positively. You’ll need financing and I can help; you’ll need new contacts and I’ll help. I can put key staff in here who will inject new enthusiasm…’

In awe Jade listened to it all, acknowledging the power and energy the man had and realising why he was so successful. She felt her spirits lift for her company but still a deep part of her lamented her emotional loss. She knew she shouldn’t even be considering her own feelings when he was outlining plans for saving her company but she couldn’t help the snap of sorrow squeezing at her heart. With all these changes going on he would be around a lot. Would she be able to cope with the sight of him? With the knowledge that every day was bringing him closer to his wedding day—the day when she would know for sure it was finally over?

Mel picked up his coat from the chair. ‘I’ll turn this company around in three months,’ he told her at last.

‘And…and your price?’ she uttered weakly, still dazed by his restructuring plans.

Slowly he came across the thick carpet to her, something so strange in his eyes that she steeled herself. The crunch was about to come, she sensed, some exorbitant fee that would cancel out any profits that might come from his new plans for the company.

After folding his coat over one arm, his hand came up to grip her chin quite firmly. His touch was paralysing, numbing her limbs and yet making her nerve-endings tingle. His dark, broody eyes captured hers so utterly compellingly that she had no choice but to stare at him, wide-eyed.

‘At the end of three months, if not before, you’ll know my price, sweetheart,’ he said in a dark undertone which made his words sound more like a threat than anything else. ‘But don’t ever forget I don’t come cheap.’

Jade ran the feverish tip of her tongue over her lower lip—the lip he was scorching with his eyes. She felt danger shiver down her spine. It was the way he was looking at her…as if…as if he wanted to claim those lips.

‘I’ll pick you up at nine,’ he breathed softly. ‘Dinner and more discussions before we get this rolling.’ She opened her mouth to protest. ‘Don’t argue,’ he cut in before she could. ‘I’ve warned you. Just remember I always know best,’

He left her suffering yet another indignity, which washed over her like a tidal wave. The indignity of not having any choice but to put up with his arrogant pomposity. No, Mel Biaggio didn’t come cheap. She would pay the price all right, more than she could have envisaged at the outset of all this. In fact she had started the instalments already. She was going to pay dearly for ever having fallen in love with him.